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Tuesday, March 1, 2016

Wright Flyer

Here are some images of Revell's 1/39 scale Wright Flyer.
One would think that the years this kit has been around, Revell would fixed the rigging instructions for this kit by now. If there ever was a subject that needs to be done in a high tech kit it's the Wright flyer.
To be more accurate extra rigging has to be placed between the front and back pillars respectively. Like what you would see on a Spad.

The Flyer was based on the Wrights' experience testing gliders at Kitty Hawk between 1900 and 1902. Their last glider, the 1902 Glider, led directly to the design of the Flyer.The Wrights built the aircraft in 1903 using giant spruce wood as their construction material. The wings were designed with a 1-in-20 camber. Since they could not find a suitable automobile engine for the task, they commissioned their employee Charlie Taylor to build a new design from scratch, effectively a crude gasoline engine.[3] A sprocket chain drive, borrowing from bicycle technology, powered the twin propellers, which were also made by hand.The Flyer was a canard
biplane configuration. As with the gliders, the pilot flew lying on his
stomach on the lower wing with his head toward the front of the craft
in an effort to reduce drag. He steered by moving a cradle attached to
his hips. The cradle pulled wires which warped the wings and turned the rudder simultaneously.The Flyer's "runway" was a track of 2x4s stood on their narrow edge, which the brothers nicknamed the "Junction Railroad". The Flyer was conceived as a control-canard, as the Wrights were more concerned with control than stability. However it was found to be so highly unstable it was barely controllable.
Following the first flight, ballast was added to the nose to move the
center of gravity forward and reduce pitch instability. However the
basics of pitch stability of the canard configuration were not
understood by the Wright Brothers. F.E.C. Culick stated, "The backward
state of the general theory and understanding of flight mechanics
hindered them... Indeed, the most serious gap in their knowledge was
probably the basic reason for their unwitting mistake in selecting their
canard configuration".

Upon returning to Kitty Hawk in 1903, the Wrights completed assembly of the Flyer
while practicing on the 1902 Glider from the previous season. On
December 14, 1903, they felt ready for their first attempt at powered
flight. With the help of men from the nearby government life-saving
station, the Wrights moved the Flyer and its launching rail to the
incline of a nearby sand dune, Big Kill Devil Hill,
intending to make a gravity-assisted takeoff. The brothers tossed a
coin to decide who would get the first chance at piloting, and Wilbur
won. The airplane left the rail, but Wilbur pulled up too sharply,
stalled, and came down in about three seconds with minor damage.Repairs after the abortive first flight took three days. When they
were ready again on December 17, the wind was averaging more than
20 mph, so the brothers laid the launching rail on level ground, pointed
into the wind, near their camp. This time the wind, instead of an
inclined launch, helped provide the necessary airspeed for takeoff.
Because Wilbur already had the first chance, Orville took his turn at
the controls. His first flight lasted 12 seconds for a total distance of
120 ft (36.5 m) – shorter than the wingspan of a Boeing 747, as noted by observers in the 2003 commemoration of the first flight.Taking turns, the Wrights made four brief, low-altitude flights that
day. The flight paths were all essentially straight; turns were not
attempted. Each flight ended in a bumpy and unintended "landing". The
last flight, by Wilbur, was 852 feet (260 m) in 59 seconds, much longer
than each of the three previous flights of 120, 175 and 200 feet. The
landing broke the front elevator supports, which the Wrights hoped to
repair for a possible four-mile (6 km) flight to Kitty Hawk village.
Soon after, a heavy gust picked up the Flyer and tumbled it end over
end, damaging it beyond any hope of quick repair. It was never flown
again. In 1904, the Wrights continued refining their designs and piloting
techniques in order to obtain fully controlled flight. Major progress
toward this goal was achieved with a new Flyer in 1904 and even more decisively in 1905 with a third Flyer, in which Wilbur made a 39-minute, 24-mile (39 km) nonstop circling flight on October 5.
While the 1903 Flyer was clearly a historically important test vehicle,
its hallowed status in the American imagination has obscured the role
of its two successors in the continuing development that led to the
Wrights' mastery of controlled powered flight in 1905.